I race handicapped by PHRF Lake Ontario which has no rating adjustment for 
whisker pole length.  I picked
up a Forespar Line Control which goes out to 22', a fair bit for a 30' boat.


In light air, 4 knots TWS, setting the sails perpendicular to the wind works as 
well as anything else I have tried.
That has the pole low at both ends, barely above the lifelines.


At a higher wind speed the common advise is to trim the genoa so the wind flows 
around it as opposed to
it being a barn door. That will bring the pole back so it is more perpendicular 
to the wind, usually the
inboard end up the mast a bit and the leach pointing into the wind. A bit like 
trimming a spinnaker.


Forespar has a diagram here:


https://www.forespar.com/pdf/F6.1-whisker-pole-brochure.pdf


Not having the leech bouncing around helps. For me that means adjusting the 
inboard end to get enough
down pressure.


For a genoa with a 21' LP I will use all 22' of whisker pole in light air and 
about 18' in moderate air.
In heavier air I switch to the spin pole which is 14.5' ( oversized and I take 
a penalty ). I can tell it is not optimal but works OK.


Michael Brown
Windburn
C&C 30-1




Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2019 12:42 PM 
Cc: David Knecht <davidakne...@gmail.com> 

  
 
We race non-spinnaker class and a few years ago I got an extendable whisker 
pole for the genoa.  I am unsure about optimal settings for pole height and 
length.   I suspect it is sometimes suboptimal because I have noticed some 
boats able to carry the genoa poled out at much closer angles than I have 
achieved.  Presumably the optimal pole angle is near perpendicular to the 
apparent wind.  It seems that extending the pole flattens the sail to some 
extent but I suspect it is more complicated than that.  Height I have no idea.  
Any general rules of thumb? 
 
  
 
 Related to this, the VMG chart I have from C&C  has optimal VMG downwind 
apparent angle of about 140-145? true.  Are those numbers +spinnaker, 
-spinnaker standard or -spinnaker wing on wing with whisker pole?  Thanks- Dave 
 
    
 
S/V Aries 
 
1990 C&C 34+ 
 
New London, CT 
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